Patience and Other Poems

By Holly Payne-Strange

Patience

Patience 
Is a hunger sated.  
It is the smooth and graceful 
Arc of ice skaters. 
Fictionless 
Confident 
Steady.  

It is a deep breath 
Before walking on stage.
A declaration 
That come what may,
You will wait. 
Even if the path before you is not entirely clear. 

It is an invitation 
For the chaos of live 
And the ravages of time 
To do what they may. 

You will face them all
Square in the eye 
See them coming 
And accept it all. 

Because you are 
Very 
Patient. 

I know

I know
That what I'm doing is crazy. 

That most people can't,  won't, 
Understand
The choices I make.
The things I let you get away with 
Are 
Perhaps 
A little hard to understand. 
A scribbled sketch, lines of messy charcoal 
Blurring the page

And even worse, 
What I give
Is extreme, an over abundance
Of passion, cans of paint thrown against a wall, 
Until everything is color and chaos. 

But. 

You are 
The hope diamond 
Glittering through  the glass
A Da Vinci, 
Genius sequestered behind gallery ropes. 
Monet’s water lilies, 
Soft and supple colors streaking together, 
Just out of reach. 

And who would say
We should not 
Go to a museum, 
Simply because we can not caress the paintings? 

To gaze up on them 
Is enough.  
 
I’m fine. 
Doing well, actually. 
I’ve been invited to give 
A lecture next month. 
I do interviews, 
I write and create
Laugh and grow and change, 
Finding bliss in my garden 
And nirvana in  sunlight.  

But yes, 
I want to give you everything. 

It's just so much fun. 

My muse

My love and my muse, 
I think, perhaps, you’d be a little angry 
If you knew I had written this. 
But I can’t help it. 

You leave behind you a trail of love poems. 
Each movement a sonnet and every word an epic,
Filled with echoes of a life well spent. 

Who would I be 
If I did not stoop down to pick them up
And, being down there, 
Took a moment to worship at your feet?
Frankly I think it’s cruel, asking me to resist.  

I know that you can not see your own light. 
That right now, you're lost in a certain darkness. 
It seems so unfair.  
You illuminate so much, scattering delight 
As easily and casually as the sun glinting off waves, 
diamonds and color in your wake. 
I wish that you could see it too. 

I believe you will, one day. One day you will 
Remember your passion, pick up your joy, 
Dust off the cobwebs and put it on again 
Growing accustomed anew to its light and elegant drape. 

Have faith, and have courage, that time will come. 
And if I am lucky, 
Blessed,
Favored beyond all measure. 
I’ll be there to see it too. 

Holly Payne-Strange’s first novel, Strange and Twisted Things, was released last year and her poetry has been featured in many publications, including  Door Is A Jar Magazine, Curating Athena, and in an installation by Rising Sun Productions, among others. Additionally, she is the creator of the  narrative podcast Echoes, featuring Broadway Stars and Emmy Award Winning Actors.  She is largely recognized as an authority on dramatic writing, most recently being a panelist on podcasts at Fordham university, and she gave a talk at The Players Club, NYC October 2023.